Chapter 56

Qi Yuanshan looked helplessly at his lover who was typing away on the computer, “Not going to sleep yet?”

Jiang Muhe typed away noisily, the key board sounding “bata bata” away, before turning and replying triumphantly, “This one’s popularity hasn’t changed from yesteryear, so proud!”

“What are you talking about?” said Qi Yuanshan, his eyes darkened.

*Sigh* “I told you the one I had my eye on is being bullied, can’t I step in and help him?” Jiang Muhe quickly changed gears, “it’s the student we met at the school founding anniversary party last time. The handsome one that made delicious cakes!”

“But it’s almost midnight, you promised me…”

“OK! I promised you to sleep at 11pm every night alright, it’s just once! I got it grandma!” Jiang Muhe then reluctantly turned off the computer.

“Grandma?” Qi Yuanshan immediately caught onto his words.

“Hubby! Haha” Jiang Muhe quickly jumped over to the other side of the room, “I said hubby~~~”

“Alright, go take a shower already!” Qi Yuanshan didn’t continue his teasing.

“K k k k” said Jian Muhe while nodding quickly “I’ll go immediately!”

At this moment on the internet a forum war was happening. Fans were moving from forums, to listings and Weibo asking for updates on the situation. Although Weibo wanted to give face to Xing Yang, the matter at hand had already reached the hot search bar and could no longer be suppressed.

As the PR department was readying their announcement --

“Wait!” Han Su stopped everyone, “Everyone take a look --”

“OMG, Jiang Muhe is posting about Xiaoqing!”

“Really?”

“Jeez, then do we even need to post anything?”

All the eyes in the room turned to Han Su.

Thinking over it, Han Su decided to withhold the announcement for a bit.

Rui Sha quickly took out her phone and opened Jiang Muhe’s Weibo post that was related to Mo Shaoqing. Although the purpose of the post didn’t help out directly, the implication showed that they weren’t strangers. “Shaoqing, you know Jiang Muhe? Why didn’t you tell me something so important!”

Seeing Rui Sha’s nervousness Mo Shaoqin didn’t know to laugh or cry: “He looks familiar!”

“Do you know each other or not!” Rui Sha asked anxiously.

“En? I might have seen him at the school’s founding party--” Mo Shaoqing expanded the post and looked over it carefully: “I made this cake and gave it to him!”

“Anyways, who is this person?”

Rui Sha looked like she was going to fall over, “You really have some dumb luck, now that you mention it, Jiang Muhe is an alumni from your school!”

Rui Sha then gave Mo Shaoqing a more in depth explanation.

Mo Shaoqing didn’t sit still either and looked up ‘Jiang Muhe’ online. Only to be shocked at the hundreds or thousands of results that came back.

The majority of the results were about Jiang Muhe and his lover Qi Yuanshan moving to a foreign country in the name of love. However, that was already decades old news. It was no wonder Mo Shaoqing knew little on the subject.

Jiang Muhe was originally a screenwriter, while Qi Yuanshan was a director. The two bonded over their hobbies and later filmed a critically acclaimed same-sex romantic movie called [Mountain River] together. This film would become a sensation and go on winning several international film awards.

At the time, the two were in their early 20s, and became famous despite their age. The two then fell in love and formed their own studio called Shanhe. They then filmed a very influential piece called [Chrysanthemum], garnering the pair a Golden Swan award for ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Screenplay’ categories.

Not long after, the two were ousted for being in a homosexual relationship. During that era, such news would have been considered a horrible scandal.

However these two men were not shy, they openly came out and shocked not only the entertainment circle at home but abroad as well. The two then left the country, leaving Shanhe studio in the care of a mutual friend.

Yet these actions would not shake their place in the entertainment circle.

Mo Shaoqing was stunned by this ‘diao*’ lifestyle. It was no wonder that at the School Founding Anniversary the two were so bold and didn’t care about the gazes from others…

“Although we don’t know why Jiang Muhe helped speak on your behalf, his opinion will help improve the situation online.” speculated Rui Sha.

“Then you should reply to Jiang Muhe’s post, and say this….”

Under Rui Sha’s suggestion, Mo Shaoqing replied to Jianh Muhe’s post:

Mon_Shaoqing: No problem!

>> ImJiangMuhe: It’s been so long since I had such a delicious cake! When will you make another one for me? [photo] [photo]

“OK, done!”

Rui Sha rubbed at her tired eyes, “En, let's see what happens tomorrow!”

In actuality, there was no need to wait for the next day. By the time it was noon, the online hate towards Mo Shaoqing had decreased. Although there were also many who were on the fence about their opinion, the momentum of the situation had died down.

The press who were waiting on the sidelines for the issue to blow up some more before finishing their articles had to reach a conclusion.

In the afternoon a new buzz was floating around:

Mo Ansheng: Lately there have been a few things said online that are pure nonsense. Each role in my work goes through multiple casting calls before they are selected.
I only want to say that if every audition is considered scoring a part, then my films would have many people claiming their parts were stolen! @TangQin @LiuYuan @MuYibin @Mon_Shaoqing

This post was forwarded everywhere.

What? Audition? Mo Shaoqing had gone through auditions to get the part? Xu Che didn’t actually get the part but was cut out during the casting process?

Netizens began to carefully comb through Xu Che’s Weibo, he had started posting at the end of August but at that time [The Legend of Emperor Ling] was already airing on TV. That meant that the filming process was already completed, yet he didn’t even know he didn’t get the part? Why make a blog post like that then? If he really did get the part, shouldn’t he have started promoting the show earlier instead of posting some blurry screenshots? However, if he didn’t get the part, why bother posting a screenshot!

According to Director Mo’s statement, these screenshots may have been taken during casting, to post audition photos when the TV series started to air, what was that implying? If you didn’t even play a role, then doesn’t this mean you’re crazy!

In conclusion, it seemed that someone wanted to make use of the popularity around [The Legend of Emperor Ling]! Of course if you thought about it on a deeper level, he misled his fans into thinking he was in the series, then deleted his blog posts letting people think his part was stolen, ugh! This scheme was quite remarkable but who would have thought that karma would strike back so quickly!

The spectating netizens were dumbfounded. They were expecting an interesting show to watch and prepared the popcorn but before it was ready the truth was already revealed!

This is why many netizens concluded that this whole thing was a huge planned scam!

Naturally the sane fans didn’t want to believe it. They felt that this was something devised by management to make their idols more popular and noticed.

Seeing this kind of ending, Xu Che was seething with rage. He knew that Mo Ansheng had removed him from the cast but he couldn’t ruin him so he didn’t mention Mo Ansheng’s involvement and only talked about his part getting stolen by Mo Shaoqing.

Regardless of the result, Mo Shaoqing was a newly debuted starlet and would definitely leave a negative impression with the audience. With just a bit of tweaking, then he would have no future in the industry.

If Mo Ansheng wanted to come out and diffuse the situation, why would such a big name director bother helping a no name actor. Anyways, he was only just “coincidentally” replaced, Mo Ansheng had replaced him without reason and even let someone with no acting experience take his spot, who generally give poor impressions in the audience. He hadn’t mentioned any of these!

“It’s ok, don’t panic, we just underestimated him. Let’s think of a solution?” asked the agent.

“Think of what? Right now everyone thinks I only auditioned and didn’t get to act, let alone casted!!!” Xu Che smashed and threw things as spoke.

But you didn’t even do any auditions! The agent complained internally, “Didn’t you get a role in the new TV series [The East Sea Mermaid]? If you have any costumes in white clothes you could say they’re from that series and you randomly took a picture. When the time comes for it to air… you can respond that you never said you were talking about [The Legend of Emperor Ling]! It was all made up by your fan’s imaginations!”

“It’s the only thing we can do now, you go post on Weibo, I’m tired, I need to rest!” Xu Che then went to his room and slammed the door shut.

On the third day, Xu Che made a long post on his blog explaining a few things, but those who were in the know scoffed. Even some of his fans couldn’t believe him anymore, anyone with eyes could clearly see what was going on, but he didn’t even even apologize but made an excuse to explain away the situation. Did you think everyone was stupid?

Mo Shaoqing was optimistic throughout the ordeal. In general he wasn’t worried, right now he had Jiang couple sticking up for him as well as Director Mo and the cast and crew. The curtain would soon fall on this ordeal and disappear.

But why did he feel like he was still missing something?

Looking around, he realized he didn’t see Mr. Ling, as the thought passed through his mind he immediately asked why he hadn’t seen Boss Ling around lately. Rui Sha was taken aback a bit but soon relaxed and thought to herself: Finally he’s asked me, Boss Ling’s orders can finally be completed! Looking meaningfully right at Mo Shaoqing, Rui Sha said: “Mr Ling has gone abroad.” Taking a pause and added: “He left hurriedly due to something urgent!”

*Diao is used to describe things that are "cool"